Marathon Viewing The Latest Holiday Movies: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the season to relax on the couch and consume a packet of festive treats in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of new Christmas films hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I binged as many fresh holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, optimistically, on a high. This release is the only 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band end up stuck in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while followers will undoubtedly catch lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is superb for fans and a good start to the day.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who will have to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor roped into a "panto".

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His pantomime co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. You can guess their response. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some touching side stories, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor shows up at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There’s time for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to return the difference.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she encounters a man in a literary haven who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is notable too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, despite the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The answer is to be discovered, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s low-key but sweet, and perfect viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a quarrelling American family who reunite for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher